The Bayard Rustin Center for LGBTQA Activism, Education, and Reconciliation operates within the Multicultural Education Department at Guilford College and is a space dedicated to affirming the lives, histories and experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Allied students, faculty and staff at Guilford and beyond. In the spirit of the late civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, we are committed to cultivating transformative educational experiences, building the leadership within otherwise marginalized communities, and promoting conversations across the intersections of race, ethnicity, religion, class, sexual orientation and gender identity. We operate within a social justice framework and understand that the liberation of queer (LGBTQQA) communities are inherently connected to the liberation of all oppressed communities. Moreover, we uphold critical thinking and critical reflective practices as essential pieces to our freedom movements. Through service provision, coalition and community building opportunities, the sharing of resources and personal narratives, we aspire to build an environment that is liberating, empowering, equitable and inclusive.

The LGBTQQA Center at Guilford (formerly known as The Queer and Allied Resource Center or QuARC) was first established in 1996 and was historically student run. The Center was renamed as The Bayard Rustin Center for LGBTQA Activism, Education and Reconciliation in 2001 in honor of the late civil rights leader and is now running under the auspices of the Multicultural Education Department. The BRC is now located in King Hall in Room #128E and is open Monday-Friday from 10-8pm and hosts a number of activities, groups, and special events.
Learn more about LGBTQA history at Guilford.

According to www.rustin.org, "A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement, and helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence. Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era."

Trans*ACTION:TransACTION is a student-lead group designed to build awareness of trans*issues here on campus and to create inclusive and libratory spaces for transgender and gender non-conforming students, faculty, staff and community members.

QPOC (Queer People of Color):Q-POC is a collective of students of color that identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and allied. The space will be dedicated to the exploration of the intersections of racial and sexual identities in the hopes of building community here at Guilford and locally.